Trump Administration Moved $10 Million From FEMA Budget to ICE

14 September 2018

The agency's budget is more than $15 billion. The U.S. Secret Service was also a beneficiary of the reallocation. "Democrats like Kevin's opponent would rather see ICE abolished and money spent on paper clips and staplers.than on keeping our nation safe", the campaign said in a statement. "When American citizens in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands are still suffering from FEMA's inadequate recovery efforts-the administration transferred millions of dollars away from FEMA".

Merkley has been a leading critic of the Trump administration's immigration policies, including the "zero tolerance" policy at the border that resulted in almost 3,000 children separated from their families.

The storm, which could hit the U.S. East Coast as a Category 3 or 4 hurricane as early as Thursday, is expected to have the greatest impact in North Carolina but parts of SC and Virginia are also in the hurricane's path.

Former Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt resigned in July amid a series of spending and other ethics-related controversies, and former health secretary, Tom Price, resigned in 2017 following revelations of his use of costly private planes for government business.

The memorandum sheds light on the immigration-enforcement operations enhanced by the FEMA funds.

"Without the transfers and reprogramming identified in this notification, ICE will not be able to fulfill its adult detention requirements in [fiscal year] 2018", the document reads.

The Senate's appropriations subcommittee on Homeland Security has, less publicly, expressed similar concerns.

UNC, NC State cancel football games due to Hurricane Florence
In its discussion, the NHC said that Florence is predicted to "slow down significantly" in the 72 hours before it approaches land. Schools in Elizabeth City-Pasquotank and Perquimans County have already announced they'll close for students on Wednesday.

"So I would dispute the statement that this has no bearing on addressing the challenges from hurricanes", Merkley said. "It means that just as hurricane season is starting...the administration is working hard to find funds for additional detention camps, and of course this is all part of the child separation policy, and that's how this information came into my hands because of my work on the issue of trying to stop the child separations", he said.

Administration officials say Mr. Merkley and MSNBC got it all wrong. He also suggested that the financial pressure was linked to this month's announcement by the administration of new regulations created to enable expanded detention of families who cross into the US without legal status.

Because of the loss of the $9.75 million, FEMA "will curtail training, travel, public engagement sessions, IT security support and infrastructure maintenance", DHS writes. FEMA has an account with US$25 billion that is to be used for disaster response and recovery, according to DHS.

Moira Whelan, a former DHS official, told The Washington Post that Houlton was "parsing words", because money outside the Disaster Relief Fund is still used to prepare for disasters and improve the response to them.

The transfer of funds to Immigration and Customs Enforcement "has not impacted our situation whatsoever", said Jeff Byard, the associate administrator of an arm of FEMA.

Maddow reported that the $9.8 million would help ICE with border security, including building new detention centers, even while admitting that DHS said that the transfer of funds from one agency operating budget to another agency is governed by law.

"The power is going to be off for weeks and you will be displaced from your home and the coastal areas", Long said. The Category 4 storm is expected to make landfall in North Carolina Friday morning. "Everybody is ready", Trump said in brief remarks at Joint Base Andrews. "We are sparing no expense". During a White House briefing on Florence this week, the president said the effort in Puerto Rico was "an incredible unsung success".